


He Laughs

by hushlittlewolf



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Everyone is One Big Pack Family, Mentions of past abuse, Pack Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-30
Updated: 2013-08-30
Packaged: 2017-12-25 02:12:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/947382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hushlittlewolf/pseuds/hushlittlewolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He hadn’t laughed in a very long time. He had forgotten what it was for.</p>
<p>Or</p>
<p>The one where Isaac looks up the meaning of his name.</p>
            </blockquote>





	He Laughs

**Author's Note:**

> This is literally self-indulgent BS. I was re-watching some season 2 and Isaac's abuse story arc just hit me really hard and this plotline just popped into my head. Anyways, enjoy!
> 
> (oh and I was also in a PACK FEELS type of mood so literally everyone one is just one big happy family. No one died, there was never any pain, everyone loves each other and everything is happy gdi)

He looked it up once.

It was something one of his teachers had said in class, a passing mention of a name’s etymology. Nothing special or important, he should have forgotten all about it before he even left school. But something was curious in him, a diluted sort of wonder, and he found himself on one of the library’s computer during study hall, booting up the ancient thing, fingers hovering over the keyboard, confused as to what he was even doing.

 

**I-S-A-A-C**

_[Search]_

Predictably, the first results were biblical in nature.

_And God said unto Abraham…_

That part didn’t particularly interest him. It had been a long time since he was anything remotely religious.

Absentmindedly, he scrolled for a few more paragraphs until he saw it.

 

**_Meaning & History_**

_From the Hebrew name[יִצְחָק](http://www.behindthename.com/support/transcribe.php?type=HB&target=Yiz%5E%3Ah%5Eaq) (Yitzchaq) which meant “he laughs.”_

He had stared at the screen for almost half an hour, not moving, not speaking, just staring.

_‘He laughs’_

The irony tasted metallic on his tongue, like copper, like pennies, like the blood that slid down his throat last night when he bit through his cheek, curled up at the bottom of a freezer, trying to push away the dark. Isaac shut down the computer with a sharp jab, not even wincing when the splintered edges of his nails started to bleed again. He left the library without a backwards glance, bones brittle beneath bruised skin.

He hadn’t laughed in a very long time.

He had forgotten what it was for.

* * *

It’s not until later, years later, that he remembers this random, unimportant, aspect of himself.

They are all sitting in Derek’s house—newly renovated and smelling of paint and pine—crowded around a dinner table stack high with junk food. Erica snags the last piece of pizza from right between Stiles’ fingers. The human boy lunges and whines when he misses, complains about unfair advantages and inhuman speed. Unfazed, Erica eats half the slice in one bite, cheeks bulging, and Stiles droops against the table, muttering obscenities under his breath, something akin to ‘witch’ but not just quite. Boyd clears his throat, eyes flashing yellow, and Stiles is snapping up straight, stammering apologies, eyes trying (and failing) to not look in fear at Boyd’s incredibly muscular arm, curled around Erica’s shoulders. In an attempt to make amends, Stiles makes to pass Erica a Reese’s Cup, but he’s always been too spastic, flailing limbs and rubber bones. He knocks over the liter of soda straight into Derek’s lap, drenching him from collarbone to thigh. Stiles goes pale in terror, Erica goes red with suppressed mirth, and Scott…Scott is looking at Isaac funny.

“What?” Isaac asks around a mouth full of chips.

The smaller beta shakes his head, smiles, brown eyes soft and warm. “Nothing,” he says, shrugs, then continues, “You just have a nice laugh. It’s good to hear it, man.”

Isaac doesn’t know what to say, still so unsure at times with compliments and kind gestures. He blinks and ducks his head, reaching for more food to occupy his attention. Jackson groans somewhere to his right and snaps, “If you two are done having a moment, McCall pass the Twizzlers.”

Scott rolls his eyes but does, snagging one for himself and Allison. Isaac glances up, and it hits him then, as he’s looking at his pack, his _family_ , as wayward and motley as it may be. It hits him as he takes in Stiles mopping up soda and Derek pinching the bridge of his nose and muttering about teenagers and how he was getting too damn old for this. It hits him when he sees Erica lean into Boyd’s shoulder, the larger boy pressing a kiss to her temple.

It hits him when Jackson tosses a Twizzler at him, and when Lydia compliments the scarf he is wearing and when they all fall asleep that night, sprawled across the living room, some movie Isaac can’t even remember rolling through its credits.

_‘He laughs’_

Oh. This is what it is for.

**Author's Note:**

> My Tumblr: http://the-wild-wolves-around-you.tumblr.com


End file.
